urned the exchanges and have been
brought back to us in return for our wheat and other products.

This double transaction is in essence one--a barter of present income in
the form of our wheat to Europe for future income in the form of
investment securities. It was interfered with by the refusal of the
insurance companies to insure the gold and by the closing of Stock
Exchanges against the inundating flood of securities. The first
difficulty, as to transporting gold, has been largely removed by
arranging for drafts against stocks of it kept on both sides of the
Atlantic. This will save the need of sending it on risky voyages back
and forth, and any final net balances can be liquidated after the war.
The second obstacle, the closure of the Stock Exchanges, is more
formidable, but cannot completely or permanently prevent the
transactions which so many people on both sides are anxious to
consummate. Curb markets and limited cash sales on the Exchanges
themselves are doing some of this business, and, sooner or later, much
more will be done, whether the Exchanges are open or not. Europe needs
our wheat and cannot pay for it except with securities, partly because
her own industry is paralyzed, partly because ocean transportation is
difficult.

What Dumping Securities Means.

Few people seem to realize that the dumping of securities on our shores
and the efforts of foreign Governments, such as France and Switzerland,
to borrow money in our markets are at the bottom very much the same
thing. They are simply two forms of securing present supplies from
America in return for future supplies, the dividends and interest on
securities from Europe.

It does not much matter whether we buy Government bonds or other
securities. If we buy of French capitalists their holdings in American
railway securities we simply provide them with the wherewithal to take
the French Government loans themselves. They virtually become, without
our knowledge, the go-between through which we lend, as it were, to the
French Government, in spite of ourselves. It is doubtless well, as a
matter of policy, to refuse to loan directly to France, but we must not
for a moment conclude that France or any other nation will have to
finance the war without our aid. We shall not be consciously helping any
particular nation, but we shall be actually helping any nation which can
trade with us. Evidently England will get more of our help than any
other nation because